Just saw BEFORE MIDNIGHT and it is as good as they are saying. It starts off slowly and methodically and it's different than the last two for reasons that will become instantly clearly once you see it.

This film contains the best fight I have ever seen on screen. Not action fight, obviously. But two people mad and going at it. It's riveting and funny and just damned fricking good.

I saw Before Midnight today and agree entirely with your assessment of the film. It starts slowly but just gets better and more involving as it goes along, which resulted in my being surprised when it was over. I also agree with you about the "fight" scene in the hotel room, which continued at the outdoor cafe. Man, it was wearing! Wearing or not, it was also very, very smart and confirmed a long held belief: lasting relationships require both love and adaptability. As exasperating as she could be, I loved Celine. Despite her not infrequent hysterics, she was a warm and caring person and could charm the birds out of the trees. I felt the same way about Jesse, who was a bit more emotionally stable than Celine but just as charming. I have never seen more palpable chemistry between romantic leads since the early pictures starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

Other than brutal war stories or sappy human dramas, romance is my least likely to watch genre, but there is always an exception.

Always enjoy Julie Delpy since White and An American Werewolf in Paris. This is the last of the trilogy of two people who met in a train from 1994 or about. I love the ending to this as my wife and I got more "mature". Marriage is about accepting your partner as whole, not the best or worst part.

Fighting does not need to have knives or guns to be brutal, words could just as sharp. Funny thing is, my wife thought this movie is too "romantic". What the hell. We've only been married for over 30 years.